Wow, the fog!!!
16:43: Having just been woken up with the warning "Father Christmas coming in 15 minutes!!!1!!1!11one" I've leapt out of bed to write this.
And so I am with my cute ickle nephew bounding around my bed for some reason, I'm going to perform the dual tasks of getting ready for work AND getting ready to take my ickle nephew out :-).
17:09: Well you've heard the phrase "christmas comes early", in this case it was true, with father christmas on his van outside before we got to the front door.
A brief spell in the foggy snowy coldness outside, listening to the happy christmas tunes from santa's sleigh, and my ickle nephew was given a miniature Flake chocolate bar :-).
Well, I'd best be getting ready to go to work, I'll write more after I get back.
Ciao!
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Kerrist, it's cold!!!
"You're stating the obvious, hahahaha".
Shut up.
This is England, a country where earlier THIS YEAR, we had 4 inches of snow in february, and less than EIGHT weeks later, sweltered in 35C (95F) heat.
But Kerrist, it's been cold this weekend.
Last night was nothing special. I wandered off to work listening to happy christmas tunes, crunching through the already-melting snow.
and out I went, into the night, delivering here there and everywhere, slippety-sliding down hills, freezing my butt off, and getting (secretly) first angry, then frustrated, then bemused, then amused, as customer after customer looked out of their door at my frost-covered bike, at the little snow that remained, coming down, at me shivering my ass off, and somewhere in their mind the little light that lit up the button labelled "give this poor kid a tip" never really came on.
Four hours into a five hour shift - in the snow - on the ice - on a bike! - was when I got my first tip. Having mentioned to the woman that "you're the first person to say [keep the change] all night", she snorted and spat "some people just don't think".
"That's not for me to say" I said, professionally and politely.
"Not while I'm still being paid anyway". Which made her laugh.
I'm only human, and I'm allowed to show it. A big plus over my last job. Look - here's a video with some of my ex work colleagues in it.
I got home last night, to find my computer on standby (After I turned it off), and my room a general mess (after I cleaned it). Turned out my ickle lovable nephew had been in wanting to play Zoo Tycoon, and having been unable to find my mouse, had gone to search my room for it.
Must have been a shock when the cupboard door came off in his hand (it's been broken for a while).
Of course, I couldn't find my mouse either, and I was convinced the little guy had nicked it.
So gently, I woke him from his sleepyness and figured he'd be more co-operative if I could have him offering to help, rather than admitting his guilt.
"I think my computer mouse has run off, can you help me find it?"
So the little guy got dressed and looked around with me and we couldn't find it. Eventually I found it in my wardrobe, right where I left it.
Feeling guilty, I wrapped the little guy up in blankets, and hesat there, cheerily eating Milky Way Magic Stars while I showed him various exciting (to him) christmas videos, and then off to bed.
I got woken this morning, several times, by the little dude wanting to play the lego game.
Course I left the little guy to it. Eventually my dad seemed to take great pleasure in telling my that I had to get up and go out with her. Various arguments ensued, including the point at which my nephew was told he'd have to abandon the zoo game and go downstairs.
Nephew + Computer = happiness
Nephew + Computer - Computer = Instant tantrum.
Anyway, we had the usual family flobwallops (new word) and eventually we went out, but not before my ickle nephew turned up at the door wearing an awesome little "mummy's little helper" apron. Off to do some baking, they were.
And off we went, my sister and I, to town.
We managed to park up, bimble around the toy section, and then eventually escape from the... well, grannified, as my sister would put it, nexus of shopping that is John Lewis, in Sheffield city center.
Yep, we were surrounded left and right by junior call center managers with upwardly mobile ambitions, and even as we moved from floor to floor, you could see the glint in their eye that suggested that buying such and such a gift would move them from an expendable level of middle management, to a slightly more intimate, slightly less expendable, slightly less appropriate level of aspiring very-junior-senior-management....
No, the place wasn't quite like that, but still.
We wandered around the shops, where I satisfied another christmas tradition, by buying two Terry's Chocolate Orange - one normal one and one "snowball" (white chocolate) one.
While waiting to pay I dropped the "snowball" and in the process of trying to catch it, accidentally flung it at the woman in front of me.
Well, as she said, I was the first person to throw a snowball at her this christmas :-P.
One thing I also bought was quite cute - I bought a packet of "reindeer food". "Colourful crystals and oats". I've already got it figured out, the oats are to feed the reindeer, the crystals make them fly. I want to sprinkle it outside the front of the house with my ickle nephew on Christmas Eve.
I managed to get a few presents while I was in town, though I'm still wating for the playmobil spare parts I ordered to turn up. My sister still has no clue about what she wants for christmas, which is mildly worrying because it's the big day in four days' time.
I managed to get to work only 15 minutes late after leaving it a little late to set off home, and sodding hell did the weather turn foul. The night was fairly quiet to begin with, but over the next couple of hours, a little drizzle came down, which turned into flurries of nice lovely sleet, making me wet, and cold.
The water washed away the rest of the snow, ending a nice little part of Christmas.
I didn't do too badly for tips though, and came home in a cheery mood, relaxing with some beer.
I woke up early this afternoon, to look out of the window to see...
Snow! Lots of snow! Inches of it! It wasn't long before the first cars appeared, struggling to get into their driveways and whatnot. I was sent out to distribute the christmas cards to the local houses, and took the opportunity to wander round in the snow.
I don't think I've ever seen the place so quiet. I spent about 2 hours just wandering round the local (and not so local) streets, discovering alleyways and shortcuts to places I didn't even know existed. Eventually I decided to head back home, walking in snow for 2 hours being quite tiring and whatnot, but not before I tried to make a huge snowball in the local park (only to find that the snow is that powdery stuff that doesn't stick together very easily - not that this stopped the creators of any of the dozens of snowmen I saw while on my travels...
It started to snow, just as I got home.
So yep, I'm off to have a nap, and then I suspect I might go round for a wander in the snow again tomorrow :-).
Have fun :-).
Shut up.
This is England, a country where earlier THIS YEAR, we had 4 inches of snow in february, and less than EIGHT weeks later, sweltered in 35C (95F) heat.
But Kerrist, it's been cold this weekend.
Last night was nothing special. I wandered off to work listening to happy christmas tunes, crunching through the already-melting snow.
and out I went, into the night, delivering here there and everywhere, slippety-sliding down hills, freezing my butt off, and getting (secretly) first angry, then frustrated, then bemused, then amused, as customer after customer looked out of their door at my frost-covered bike, at the little snow that remained, coming down, at me shivering my ass off, and somewhere in their mind the little light that lit up the button labelled "give this poor kid a tip" never really came on.
Four hours into a five hour shift - in the snow - on the ice - on a bike! - was when I got my first tip. Having mentioned to the woman that "you're the first person to say [keep the change] all night", she snorted and spat "some people just don't think".
"That's not for me to say" I said, professionally and politely.
"Not while I'm still being paid anyway". Which made her laugh.
I'm only human, and I'm allowed to show it. A big plus over my last job. Look - here's a video with some of my ex work colleagues in it.
I got home last night, to find my computer on standby (After I turned it off), and my room a general mess (after I cleaned it). Turned out my ickle lovable nephew had been in wanting to play Zoo Tycoon, and having been unable to find my mouse, had gone to search my room for it.
Must have been a shock when the cupboard door came off in his hand (it's been broken for a while).
Of course, I couldn't find my mouse either, and I was convinced the little guy had nicked it.
So gently, I woke him from his sleepyness and figured he'd be more co-operative if I could have him offering to help, rather than admitting his guilt.
"I think my computer mouse has run off, can you help me find it?"
So the little guy got dressed and looked around with me and we couldn't find it. Eventually I found it in my wardrobe, right where I left it.
Feeling guilty, I wrapped the little guy up in blankets, and hesat there, cheerily eating Milky Way Magic Stars while I showed him various exciting (to him) christmas videos, and then off to bed.
I got woken this morning, several times, by the little dude wanting to play the lego game.
Course I left the little guy to it. Eventually my dad seemed to take great pleasure in telling my that I had to get up and go out with her. Various arguments ensued, including the point at which my nephew was told he'd have to abandon the zoo game and go downstairs.
Nephew + Computer = happiness
Nephew + Computer - Computer = Instant tantrum.
Anyway, we had the usual family flobwallops (new word) and eventually we went out, but not before my ickle nephew turned up at the door wearing an awesome little "mummy's little helper" apron. Off to do some baking, they were.
And off we went, my sister and I, to town.
We managed to park up, bimble around the toy section, and then eventually escape from the... well, grannified, as my sister would put it, nexus of shopping that is John Lewis, in Sheffield city center.
Yep, we were surrounded left and right by junior call center managers with upwardly mobile ambitions, and even as we moved from floor to floor, you could see the glint in their eye that suggested that buying such and such a gift would move them from an expendable level of middle management, to a slightly more intimate, slightly less expendable, slightly less appropriate level of aspiring very-junior-senior-management....
No, the place wasn't quite like that, but still.
We wandered around the shops, where I satisfied another christmas tradition, by buying two Terry's Chocolate Orange - one normal one and one "snowball" (white chocolate) one.
While waiting to pay I dropped the "snowball" and in the process of trying to catch it, accidentally flung it at the woman in front of me.
Well, as she said, I was the first person to throw a snowball at her this christmas :-P.
One thing I also bought was quite cute - I bought a packet of "reindeer food". "Colourful crystals and oats". I've already got it figured out, the oats are to feed the reindeer, the crystals make them fly. I want to sprinkle it outside the front of the house with my ickle nephew on Christmas Eve.
I managed to get a few presents while I was in town, though I'm still wating for the playmobil spare parts I ordered to turn up. My sister still has no clue about what she wants for christmas, which is mildly worrying because it's the big day in four days' time.
I managed to get to work only 15 minutes late after leaving it a little late to set off home, and sodding hell did the weather turn foul. The night was fairly quiet to begin with, but over the next couple of hours, a little drizzle came down, which turned into flurries of nice lovely sleet, making me wet, and cold.
The water washed away the rest of the snow, ending a nice little part of Christmas.
I didn't do too badly for tips though, and came home in a cheery mood, relaxing with some beer.
I woke up early this afternoon, to look out of the window to see...
Snow! Lots of snow! Inches of it! It wasn't long before the first cars appeared, struggling to get into their driveways and whatnot. I was sent out to distribute the christmas cards to the local houses, and took the opportunity to wander round in the snow.
I don't think I've ever seen the place so quiet. I spent about 2 hours just wandering round the local (and not so local) streets, discovering alleyways and shortcuts to places I didn't even know existed. Eventually I decided to head back home, walking in snow for 2 hours being quite tiring and whatnot, but not before I tried to make a huge snowball in the local park (only to find that the snow is that powdery stuff that doesn't stick together very easily - not that this stopped the creators of any of the dozens of snowmen I saw while on my travels...
It started to snow, just as I got home.
So yep, I'm off to have a nap, and then I suspect I might go round for a wander in the snow again tomorrow :-).
Have fun :-).
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Chestnuts, Open Fires, and All
Meh. I hate colds.
It's been a bit of a poor fortnight, health wise.
One day I was changing my watch strap and managed to nearly slice the bloody end of my thumb off. A couple of days later I cut my finger on the same hand. THEN I got a mouth ulcer, THEN I got a cold. 51 weeks since my last one though so my health track record isn't THAT bad.
Why should you care? You shouldn't really, but I do. On the bright side, a cold is the worst thing to happen to me all year so I can't really complain :-).
Though it has been pretty crappy, what with the whole headachy sneezy congesty whatnotiness snotiness, which sounds like the name of a Roman general.
I went to a nice Christmas Do, last night. I apparently made myself popular enough with my colleagues at my last job, to be invited to their Christmas do, over a year since I left the company. Yay, go me.
The night was pretty nice though, the food was fantastic, the only hiccup was when I ran out of loose change and had to use plastic to order a beer, and since the minimum spend on card was £5, I had to get two beers instead. Hardly something to complain about.
I did spend £10 out of my tips jar though, so I woke up dutifully, earlier today - (really? I thought I could write blogs in my sleep - I should, they'd be interesting - thanks to eating a little bit of cheese each night before bed, some of my dreams are VERY interesting) - and proceeded to set off to the shops to withdraw £10 to put back in the jar. Cos I'm good at accounting like that, apparently.
I wandered out looking at what seemed to be a normal wintry/wintery (?) sunrise. And then grinned as I looked down the road, to see that the wintery sunrise actually occupied about an eighth of the sky - the part directly outside my window - and everywhere else was covered with very dark, very purposeful lead-grey clouds.
I wandered off to the shops and before I'd even got there, it started drizzling. And yet, noticing that this drizzle seemed sharper than usual, I glanced at a streetlight, to see illuminated around it, a flurry of the winter's first snow.
The snow got pretty heavy on the way back, though it seems to have died off temporarily. Still, put a smile on my face.
So what Christmassy stuff have I been up to?
Well I started my little alcoholic advent calendar (calendar with alcohol, not a calendar for alcoholics - I checked online, I exhibit one of the nine criteria required for being an alcoholic, so it's official, I don't have a drink issue :P) yesterday evening. I put the Whisky Cream and Kakao in the drinks cabinet, because I'm not going to touch them this year, on account of them being crap, which made it an eight-day countdown.
Today's drink was Ferro China, bottle number 3 apparently, which was vaguely pleasant and drinkable. Even as I finished the last drops I reflected that it wasn't as good as last year's blog made it out to be, but it was quite pleasant, and I probably wouldn't be getting any more, so I was mindful to enjoy what little I had.
I also took what I think is probably my best christmas photo ever. Again it's not so much about technical quality (though the exposure seems pretty sharp) as the content of the image, and I love the colours and the whole warm cozy christmas feeling of this one. The Living Room is purple because of the red lights from the wall lights and tree, mixing with the blue lights in the window. It seems others are getting into the christmas spirit, with my lovely friend Lexi secretly slinking off to drink Eggnog straight from the carton.
My bedroom turned out pretty well with christmas lights, and the rest of the decorations have finally gone up. The whole process was pretty painless, and I even decorated most of the big tree myself, which was a novelty.
One other thing I got up to was making a start on wrapping my Xmas presents. I've not wrapped the big playmobil presents yet because I'm waiting for a few spare parts to arrive from playmobil (£4.50ish for 9 parts, including postage - can't complain!). Once that's done, I'll get it wrapped and away.
Well, I'm off to exist for the rest of the day (which despite the snow earlier, is shaping up to be an extremely clear and bright - if extremely cold - day), and with some luck I won't miss The Bill tonight, as I have for the past three weeks. Hopefully my resurrected Ipaq (yes, this one "died" too, due to an EXTREMELY low battery - had to do a hard reset and lost all my contacts) will be able to remind me in time.
Finally, I'm going to "put" a christmas shout out to my mate McGee, if he still reads this. I haven't heard a lot from him recently, though despite his return to the UK, he's feeling a little down, so here's thinking of you bud, hope you got stuff sorted.
Have fun all :-).
Oh, as a tiny miniature christmas gift, here is a link to the Vicar of Dibley Christmas Special.
A lovely christmassy episode :-). Quite warm and fuzzy :-).
20:32 Update: Well, after a freezing day, with intermittent snowfall, we now have about a centimetre of snow on the roads, roofs, paths, trees, cars, and other assorted horizontal sky-facing surfaces of all manners. Thanks to the freezing cold, the paths AND the roads are also covered in ice, which means that the snow as it lands is now settling on anything it touches.
If this keeps up, we should be in for a white day tomorrow. Hopefully I won't get sent out on the scoots!
00:02 Update: Woop Woop! I've just been paid! Now I can sort out the rest of the Xmas pressies :-). And I can go to Princes Risborough, if I wanted to, which I don't, so I don't know why I mentioned it.
The snow's been coming down in varying degrees of severity and at one point was actually coming down pretty heavily.
Today's randomly selected Christmas countdown drink is the good old "Water from Penis Mountain". Well, it says "Amaro Monte Penice" but we all know what they meant :).
Miaow! Which is like ciao, but fluffier.
It's been a bit of a poor fortnight, health wise.
One day I was changing my watch strap and managed to nearly slice the bloody end of my thumb off. A couple of days later I cut my finger on the same hand. THEN I got a mouth ulcer, THEN I got a cold. 51 weeks since my last one though so my health track record isn't THAT bad.
Why should you care? You shouldn't really, but I do. On the bright side, a cold is the worst thing to happen to me all year so I can't really complain :-).
Though it has been pretty crappy, what with the whole headachy sneezy congesty whatnotiness snotiness, which sounds like the name of a Roman general.
I went to a nice Christmas Do, last night. I apparently made myself popular enough with my colleagues at my last job, to be invited to their Christmas do, over a year since I left the company. Yay, go me.
The night was pretty nice though, the food was fantastic, the only hiccup was when I ran out of loose change and had to use plastic to order a beer, and since the minimum spend on card was £5, I had to get two beers instead. Hardly something to complain about.
I did spend £10 out of my tips jar though, so I woke up dutifully, earlier today - (really? I thought I could write blogs in my sleep - I should, they'd be interesting - thanks to eating a little bit of cheese each night before bed, some of my dreams are VERY interesting) - and proceeded to set off to the shops to withdraw £10 to put back in the jar. Cos I'm good at accounting like that, apparently.
I wandered out looking at what seemed to be a normal wintry/wintery (?) sunrise. And then grinned as I looked down the road, to see that the wintery sunrise actually occupied about an eighth of the sky - the part directly outside my window - and everywhere else was covered with very dark, very purposeful lead-grey clouds.
I wandered off to the shops and before I'd even got there, it started drizzling. And yet, noticing that this drizzle seemed sharper than usual, I glanced at a streetlight, to see illuminated around it, a flurry of the winter's first snow.
The snow got pretty heavy on the way back, though it seems to have died off temporarily. Still, put a smile on my face.
So what Christmassy stuff have I been up to?
Well I started my little alcoholic advent calendar (calendar with alcohol, not a calendar for alcoholics - I checked online, I exhibit one of the nine criteria required for being an alcoholic, so it's official, I don't have a drink issue :P) yesterday evening. I put the Whisky Cream and Kakao in the drinks cabinet, because I'm not going to touch them this year, on account of them being crap, which made it an eight-day countdown.
Today's drink was Ferro China, bottle number 3 apparently, which was vaguely pleasant and drinkable. Even as I finished the last drops I reflected that it wasn't as good as last year's blog made it out to be, but it was quite pleasant, and I probably wouldn't be getting any more, so I was mindful to enjoy what little I had.
I also took what I think is probably my best christmas photo ever. Again it's not so much about technical quality (though the exposure seems pretty sharp) as the content of the image, and I love the colours and the whole warm cozy christmas feeling of this one. The Living Room is purple because of the red lights from the wall lights and tree, mixing with the blue lights in the window. It seems others are getting into the christmas spirit, with my lovely friend Lexi secretly slinking off to drink Eggnog straight from the carton.
My bedroom turned out pretty well with christmas lights, and the rest of the decorations have finally gone up. The whole process was pretty painless, and I even decorated most of the big tree myself, which was a novelty.One other thing I got up to was making a start on wrapping my Xmas presents. I've not wrapped the big playmobil presents yet because I'm waiting for a few spare parts to arrive from playmobil (£4.50ish for 9 parts, including postage - can't complain!). Once that's done, I'll get it wrapped and away.
Well, I'm off to exist for the rest of the day (which despite the snow earlier, is shaping up to be an extremely clear and bright - if extremely cold - day), and with some luck I won't miss The Bill tonight, as I have for the past three weeks. Hopefully my resurrected Ipaq (yes, this one "died" too, due to an EXTREMELY low battery - had to do a hard reset and lost all my contacts) will be able to remind me in time.
Finally, I'm going to "put" a christmas shout out to my mate McGee, if he still reads this. I haven't heard a lot from him recently, though despite his return to the UK, he's feeling a little down, so here's thinking of you bud, hope you got stuff sorted.
Have fun all :-).
Oh, as a tiny miniature christmas gift, here is a link to the Vicar of Dibley Christmas Special.
A lovely christmassy episode :-). Quite warm and fuzzy :-).
20:32 Update: Well, after a freezing day, with intermittent snowfall, we now have about a centimetre of snow on the roads, roofs, paths, trees, cars, and other assorted horizontal sky-facing surfaces of all manners. Thanks to the freezing cold, the paths AND the roads are also covered in ice, which means that the snow as it lands is now settling on anything it touches.
If this keeps up, we should be in for a white day tomorrow. Hopefully I won't get sent out on the scoots!
00:02 Update: Woop Woop! I've just been paid! Now I can sort out the rest of the Xmas pressies :-). And I can go to Princes Risborough, if I wanted to, which I don't, so I don't know why I mentioned it.
The snow's been coming down in varying degrees of severity and at one point was actually coming down pretty heavily.
Today's randomly selected Christmas countdown drink is the good old "Water from Penis Mountain". Well, it says "Amaro Monte Penice" but we all know what they meant :).
Miaow! Which is like ciao, but fluffier.
Wednesday, December 09, 2009
Merry 200th!!
15:43 So folks, this is the big 200, the 200th post on this blog. Crikey, I didn't realise I spent that much time writing the thing. Still...
I'm not going to waffle on about where the last 3 (or so) years have seen me, if you're that interested there's plenty of stuff that goes into all that in more depth than I could here, given my memory, or lack thereof, patience, and time. Needless to say, the blog's proven pretty valuable to me, if only because it allows me to sit and look back, through rose tinted spectacles, at various things that have happened, in the true "Haha I lost my job wasn't that funny. Hey, look at this I had to be victimised by a dentist for hours hehe that was fun" sort of way.
I'm not going to drink loads of celebration beer, because I did that the other day, and had quite an enjoyable time.
So what am I going to do instead? Well, I'm just about to get all the christmas gubbins down from the loft. So I'm gonna go get a drink, wait for my dad to get out of the way, and then get on with it.
16:52: Still haven't got on with it. Have spent the past hour and a half preparing my computer for a major backup. Gonna do a deep system virus scan too which should take until about 1am. Just backing up some stuff to CD and then off I go to do this christmassy stuff :-).
18:09: Well, that's the christmas decorations down. I think I've figured out which ones are mine, though even as I speak I'm struggling to find any signs of wear and tear (or stickyback velcro, which usually covers any possessions of mine that I might feel compelled to stick to nearby vertical surfaces) that my lights have (a couple of broken bulbs, nothing serious).
Fortunately for me, I'm amazed to see that my christmas candle arch works straight out of the box, with none of the burned-out bulbs that seem to plague christmas illuminations everywhere.
Still, I'll crack on and see if I've got what I think I've got, lights-wise.
18:21: that's the lights untangled, now to find some tape to stick em up. Oh, and a three-way socket.
19:46: After messing about for a long while, I managed to dig out a four-way socket that I thought I needed behind my desk. 40 interminable minutes later, I'd got the lights stuck up and arranged nicely, and they've just this second been switched on, for the first time. It feels more christmassy already. Now to tidy up after myself.
01:17: Well, I'm sitting here in my nice tidy room, looking forward to going to bed later.
The little christmas lights are twinkling away in their electrical type way, and shortly I'm going to be putting some supper in the microwave.
So what else has happened recently? Well, my sister and I decided to go shopping for christmas presents a couple of days ago, so off we went. We had a pretty good time, and took the time to participate in welcoming the Light Dragoons back from Afghanistan, as they marched through the town center, to cheers and applause.
I didn't really spend a great deal of money, I got a couple of christmas pressies (and a cool new razor), but that was about it.
I returned to find a card shoved through the door by the postman, saying that he'd called round while we were out, and that I'd have to collect my parcel.
The parcel, is an ebay auction that I won, for loads and loads of playmobil stuff for my ickle nephew.
We collected it the following morning, and went round Wentworth Garden Centre's playmobil section to see if there was any cool stuff there.
There was.
There always is.
But both of us are approaching being broke, about now, so it's debatable whether there's any more to buy, playmobil wise.
But hey, a look at the playmobil that arrived. I think it's fantastic. The little guy wanted an airport, he's getting an airport :-D.
On a related note, my dad has asked me to show him where to buy my christmas presents from, and says he'll buy them. Kinda spoils the surprise I guess, on the other hand, it's nice to know that they're on their way.
As for my christmas list, I'd show you. It's lovely handwritten calligraphy on parchment and it took me hours, but my mum has cleverly lost it. Meh.
Still, just for you, here is my christmas list:
Well, I'm off to make a cup of tea, and to get some spaghetti bologneise (and toast, yum).
Here is a slideshow of my nephew's awesome playmobil (the plane and helicopter are last year's xmas pressie - the rest is new :-D - remember as always, this blog is nephew-proof - restricted area, no nephews allowed! :-)
Oh and finally, here is another pressie I bought.
His name is "DeskTriceratops". I was thinking of starting a cult of personality based around him.
If a science fiction author can invent a religion from scratch, surely I can get people worshipping a plush dinosaur?
Over to you :-D.
I'm not going to waffle on about where the last 3 (or so) years have seen me, if you're that interested there's plenty of stuff that goes into all that in more depth than I could here, given my memory, or lack thereof, patience, and time. Needless to say, the blog's proven pretty valuable to me, if only because it allows me to sit and look back, through rose tinted spectacles, at various things that have happened, in the true "Haha I lost my job wasn't that funny. Hey, look at this I had to be victimised by a dentist for hours hehe that was fun" sort of way.
I'm not going to drink loads of celebration beer, because I did that the other day, and had quite an enjoyable time.
So what am I going to do instead? Well, I'm just about to get all the christmas gubbins down from the loft. So I'm gonna go get a drink, wait for my dad to get out of the way, and then get on with it.
16:52: Still haven't got on with it. Have spent the past hour and a half preparing my computer for a major backup. Gonna do a deep system virus scan too which should take until about 1am. Just backing up some stuff to CD and then off I go to do this christmassy stuff :-).
18:09: Well, that's the christmas decorations down. I think I've figured out which ones are mine, though even as I speak I'm struggling to find any signs of wear and tear (or stickyback velcro, which usually covers any possessions of mine that I might feel compelled to stick to nearby vertical surfaces) that my lights have (a couple of broken bulbs, nothing serious).
Fortunately for me, I'm amazed to see that my christmas candle arch works straight out of the box, with none of the burned-out bulbs that seem to plague christmas illuminations everywhere.
Still, I'll crack on and see if I've got what I think I've got, lights-wise.
18:21: that's the lights untangled, now to find some tape to stick em up. Oh, and a three-way socket.
19:46: After messing about for a long while, I managed to dig out a four-way socket that I thought I needed behind my desk. 40 interminable minutes later, I'd got the lights stuck up and arranged nicely, and they've just this second been switched on, for the first time. It feels more christmassy already. Now to tidy up after myself.
01:17: Well, I'm sitting here in my nice tidy room, looking forward to going to bed later.
The little christmas lights are twinkling away in their electrical type way, and shortly I'm going to be putting some supper in the microwave.
So what else has happened recently? Well, my sister and I decided to go shopping for christmas presents a couple of days ago, so off we went. We had a pretty good time, and took the time to participate in welcoming the Light Dragoons back from Afghanistan, as they marched through the town center, to cheers and applause.
I didn't really spend a great deal of money, I got a couple of christmas pressies (and a cool new razor), but that was about it.
I returned to find a card shoved through the door by the postman, saying that he'd called round while we were out, and that I'd have to collect my parcel.
The parcel, is an ebay auction that I won, for loads and loads of playmobil stuff for my ickle nephew.
We collected it the following morning, and went round Wentworth Garden Centre's playmobil section to see if there was any cool stuff there.
There was.
There always is.
But both of us are approaching being broke, about now, so it's debatable whether there's any more to buy, playmobil wise.
But hey, a look at the playmobil that arrived. I think it's fantastic. The little guy wanted an airport, he's getting an airport :-D.
On a related note, my dad has asked me to show him where to buy my christmas presents from, and says he'll buy them. Kinda spoils the surprise I guess, on the other hand, it's nice to know that they're on their way.
As for my christmas list, I'd show you. It's lovely handwritten calligraphy on parchment and it took me hours, but my mum has cleverly lost it. Meh.
Still, just for you, here is my christmas list:
Well, I'm off to make a cup of tea, and to get some spaghetti bologneise (and toast, yum).
Here is a slideshow of my nephew's awesome playmobil (the plane and helicopter are last year's xmas pressie - the rest is new :-D - remember as always, this blog is nephew-proof - restricted area, no nephews allowed! :-)
Oh and finally, here is another pressie I bought.
His name is "DeskTriceratops". I was thinking of starting a cult of personality based around him.
If a science fiction author can invent a religion from scratch, surely I can get people worshipping a plush dinosaur?
Over to you :-D.
Sunday, December 06, 2009
Off out!
09:25: Right, despite a thoroughly filthy horrible wet and nasty night (during which I got completely soaked at work), and an even worse filthy horrible early morning with incredibly heavy rain that woke me up (though when I got back to sleep I did manage to have a really cool dream where I got to fly in the back fo a Hughes 500D), I hve woken up feeling slightly rested and quite cold, and apparently we're now off out, to good old Kelham Island :-).
Updates to follow :-).
01:19: Well, after a rainy start, the day brightened up, and turned into one of those lovely wintry days, bright blue sky, very bright sun, cold wind etc etc.
We met my nephew (sister, brothers fiancee etc) there, to my nephew's delight, and started looking round the various stalls and exhibits.
We wandered round looking at things, my nephew drew some lovely pictures and made a christmas cracker, and I took the opportunity to have "Soupandaroll" (all one word), which unfortunately came out of the soup container at about 356 degrees C and was still hot enough to burn my mouth several hours later.
There was a momentary blip when as with last year, we ended up splitting into two seperate groups, each unable to find the other, but by the time we got reunited, my nephew was ready to go on some fairground rides, which he did.
All in all, a nice family morning out, and was quite enjoyable :-). Now I've got to get some sleep and I'm going to go to this here christmas concert thing later on, which should be nice.
I've imported some of the photos, they'll all need procesing so I'll do that at some point . I'm going to have a nap and suchlike, I think :-).
Byeee
EDIT 03:25 8th December: Here's one photo - More may follow :-). Incidentally, I have uploaded the entire demonstration of the awesome Don Engine. You can see it here.
Updates to follow :-).
01:19: Well, after a rainy start, the day brightened up, and turned into one of those lovely wintry days, bright blue sky, very bright sun, cold wind etc etc.
We met my nephew (sister, brothers fiancee etc) there, to my nephew's delight, and started looking round the various stalls and exhibits.
We wandered round looking at things, my nephew drew some lovely pictures and made a christmas cracker, and I took the opportunity to have "Soupandaroll" (all one word), which unfortunately came out of the soup container at about 356 degrees C and was still hot enough to burn my mouth several hours later.
There was a momentary blip when as with last year, we ended up splitting into two seperate groups, each unable to find the other, but by the time we got reunited, my nephew was ready to go on some fairground rides, which he did.
All in all, a nice family morning out, and was quite enjoyable :-). Now I've got to get some sleep and I'm going to go to this here christmas concert thing later on, which should be nice.
I've imported some of the photos, they'll all need procesing so I'll do that at some point . I'm going to have a nap and suchlike, I think :-).
Byeee
EDIT 03:25 8th December: Here's one photo - More may follow :-). Incidentally, I have uploaded the entire demonstration of the awesome Don Engine. You can see it here.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Gainsborough!
Part One: Prepiologue
(A cross between an epilogue and a prologue - it's a bridge between "today" and "tomorrow" (today ends when I go to bed and starts when I get up, regardless of what the clock might say).
(A cross between an epilogue and a prologue - it's a bridge between "today" and "tomorrow" (today ends when I go to bed and starts when I get up, regardless of what the clock might say).
Yay, it's that time of year again where we're looking forward to going to Gainsborough Old Hall, to look around the christmas market, to enjoy the mince pies, and to sample various curiosities such as chilli chocolate, and (probably) chips and sausage, with scandinavian cola.
But before I get to that, a word or two about "today".
I woke up, as it says, to what looked like a pretty crappy day. Unrested, cold, and in a grouchy/nervous mood. Said mood improved once I got into town to meet the rest of the lads, but nervousness didn't go away.
I didn't get red-one this time, instead being designated yellow four, which was fair enough. We did the heaves again, with the usual mix of performance ranging from swarthy 8 stone 16 year olds doing 8,9, maybe 10 heaves, and the ones who hadn't trained, failing to do a single heave. I scored three, which I wasn't happy with, but at least I passed that module and I know what to work on.
The Jerry Can Carry went pretty well. It didn't seem quite as hard as last time or the time before, and I ended up passing that with no problems. the younger lads, despite their light weight and relatively high fitness, as a side effect of that light weight, were somewhat lacking in physical strength, and as a group, they seemed to find this particular module harder than everyone else.
The run, as normal, wasn't particularly easy (especially because they shoved an extra 50 meters on the start), and wasn't particularly fun. My time wasn't awe-inspiring, at 11:25 (25 seconds slower than my best) but still secured me a pass. Said swarthy youngsters scored 8:30 and upwards, and the worst time was somewhere around 14 minutes.
The command tasks went okay, we all worked pretty well as part as a team. I didn't feel I "shone" as much as I did the first time I did them, but I did get my say in proceedings and since I figured out the fundamental secret to passing that particular challenge, I was pretty happy.
So all in all, a good day. Not the most awesome performance, but not poor by any means, and as far as I've been told, I should be looking at an acceptable pass. Which now, leaving time for further improvement, means I should be well on the way to passing at ADSC - the one that counts. There was plenty of humour, spirits were high even among the "deferred pass"ers (come back and do it again), and I made a few good mates, some of which, thanks to the magic of the internets, I'm able to keep in touch with, whether we ever meet again or not.
Looking out of the window, the day seems to have ended the way it started. Cold and drizzly.
Except now I've got a third pass under my belt, I'm much more cheerful, and much less stressed.
I'm looking forward to getting some sleep, so I think I'm off to do that now. I'll update the blog later today :-).
Have fun!
Part Two: Out and about
"Today" started pretty much the same as yesterday did, with fog and rain making its presence felt. We managed to get off in pretty good time.
Going through the local towns was interesting. I used to work in one in particular, and it was an eye opener to see the change - and lack of change - in the town. New buildings were being put up, loads of construction work going on, and yet, buildings I figured were not long for this world still stood quite happily, as they had done since before I ended up working in and around the place.
We carried on through the countryside, and eventually, despite the increasingly heavy rain, arrived at Gainsborough to find the place in fine shape, with good weather all around.
Not much to report as far as the hall itself is concerned. Everything was much the same as it always is, a nice christmassy day out. We bought a few craft-type items to grace the house come christmas time, and had our traditional mince pie and fruit punch in front of the fire. After a relatively quick look round the place, we were off out into the town, searching for Pork Crunch and Christmas Presents.
We managed to go to the retail development that I mentioned last time we went (nov '08) where we picked up a fantastic object:
A ball, exactly 4 inches across, fairly heavy for its size, (575 grams) filled with some kind of oil or something, suspended in which are maybe a teaspoon's worth of very incredibly fine (like flour) reflective metal particles.
The thing's a toy, shake it around and the powder swirls around in the fluid, giving the impression of swirling clouds within the ball. The thing looks like it's rolling even when you're holding it still in your hands. A cool present - so cool in fact that I'm trying to see where I can buy a second one for myself. [EDIT I spoke to my sister, asking if my ickle nephew would find a magical cloudy ball interesting. She agreed he would, but added that his interest would fade terminally after about ten minutes, after which time the ball would join the ranks of forsaken but heartfelt gifts under his bed. Meh. Well, on the plus side, at least I get to keep it. Yay.]
We popped into a local coffee shop for something to eat, where I had, I'm pleased to say, foreign Coca Cola (russian this time) as is traditional in Gainsborough. The food was pretty damn good though, the burger was tasty and the chips were pretty great :-).
After that, off to Tickhill Garden Centre, to look over the Christmas Decorations there, and then home. All in all, a nice christmassy day out :-).
Going through the local towns was interesting. I used to work in one in particular, and it was an eye opener to see the change - and lack of change - in the town. New buildings were being put up, loads of construction work going on, and yet, buildings I figured were not long for this world still stood quite happily, as they had done since before I ended up working in and around the place.
We carried on through the countryside, and eventually, despite the increasingly heavy rain, arrived at Gainsborough to find the place in fine shape, with good weather all around.
Not much to report as far as the hall itself is concerned. Everything was much the same as it always is, a nice christmassy day out. We bought a few craft-type items to grace the house come christmas time, and had our traditional mince pie and fruit punch in front of the fire. After a relatively quick look round the place, we were off out into the town, searching for Pork Crunch and Christmas Presents.
We managed to go to the retail development that I mentioned last time we went (nov '08) where we picked up a fantastic object:
A ball, exactly 4 inches across, fairly heavy for its size, (575 grams) filled with some kind of oil or something, suspended in which are maybe a teaspoon's worth of very incredibly fine (like flour) reflective metal particles.
The thing's a toy, shake it around and the powder swirls around in the fluid, giving the impression of swirling clouds within the ball. The thing looks like it's rolling even when you're holding it still in your hands. A cool present - so cool in fact that I'm trying to see where I can buy a second one for myself. [EDIT I spoke to my sister, asking if my ickle nephew would find a magical cloudy ball interesting. She agreed he would, but added that his interest would fade terminally after about ten minutes, after which time the ball would join the ranks of forsaken but heartfelt gifts under his bed. Meh. Well, on the plus side, at least I get to keep it. Yay.]
We popped into a local coffee shop for something to eat, where I had, I'm pleased to say, foreign Coca Cola (russian this time) as is traditional in Gainsborough. The food was pretty damn good though, the burger was tasty and the chips were pretty great :-).
After that, off to Tickhill Garden Centre, to look over the Christmas Decorations there, and then home. All in all, a nice christmassy day out :-).
Friday, November 27, 2009
Sodding about (or, "Nervousness")
Bloody hell it's 8:37. I want to be in bed at 9!
Right, it's that time of year again. I'm not going to make a big song and dance about it because I'm due for an early night shortly for reasons that will soon become apparent.
Wait for it.
Right.
NOW.
I'm off to Strensall again tomorrow - yay, go me, for a third time. Yep, I'm off on another day of running until I feel quite unwell, wandering about carrying sodding heavy jerry cans about, and worrying about whether I passed the course or not.
Excuse me for sounding flippant. The fact is, that this assessment is an important part of determining my physical and mental aptitude/suitability to join the army, and cos of a couple of issues, mostly my fault but one not-my-fault, I'm off to do it for a third time. Knowing what I'm in for doesn't make me feel any better. Surprisingly, neither does knowing that I've already passed twice. I don't know, the eternal pessimist, is me.
So wish me luck for that. With some luck, I won't need it.
In other news, I decided not to put computer neons on my christmas list, for the simple reason that I shelled out (£8, big deal) and bought some myself. Despite being attached to my computer with horrible crappy sticky pads that won't stick when you want to stick them on, and won't unstick when you want to take them off, I've managed to get three neon (cold cathode flourescent lights actually) tubes installed in my case, and it now looks really sparkly.
Look See?
One other important thing I've done (with some help) is finally get my wireless mouse working. It wouldn't hold a charge which really annoyed me cos I paid £70 for it, and like an idiot, instead of returning it, I shoved it in a cupboard expecting the problem to go away/expecting the cupboard to somehow fix it for me.
Not sure what we (me and my dad) did, but it's now charging properly and is now finally doing the job that I bought it to do.
Oh well, I hope everything goes well tomorrow, I really hope so.
If it does then I'm set for a great weekend. I'm off to gainsborough on sunday (read last christmas's blog if you're curious, I'll stick a hotlink [hyperlink? What the hell is a hotlink?] in when I have the time tomorrow) with my mum to do some christmas shopping, and that evening I'm off to a christmas concert. If I pass tomorrow's course, I'm going to buy lots of beer and celebrate in a very drunken fashion on monday evening. You may or may not get a blog entry of total crap out of me. Depends how drunkenly generous I'm feeling.
Eek. I don't want to go bed! The sooner I go bed, the sooner I go sleep and the sooner I go sleep, the sooner I wake up to have lots of sergeants and PTIs telling me to run faster and whatnot.
Oh well.
I'll be fine - I hope.
ciao!
Update: 06:53 the following day:
Well, that was probably the most unpleasant, most broken night's sleep I've ever had. I must have spent about 4 hours trying to fall asleep, and when I finally got close, something would wake me up again.
To top it off, I've woken up to a freezing cold room on a godforsaken dump of a cold and drizzly saturday morning, out of what was a relatively warm bed (cold and bloody uncomfortable, tonight of all nights, it seems actually), so I could be slightly more cheerful, but I don't think I can stretch to that at the moment.
Meh. Let's hope there's better news to come.
Have fun, I sure as hell won't! :P
Right, it's that time of year again. I'm not going to make a big song and dance about it because I'm due for an early night shortly for reasons that will soon become apparent.
Wait for it.
Right.
NOW.
I'm off to Strensall again tomorrow - yay, go me, for a third time. Yep, I'm off on another day of running until I feel quite unwell, wandering about carrying sodding heavy jerry cans about, and worrying about whether I passed the course or not.
Excuse me for sounding flippant. The fact is, that this assessment is an important part of determining my physical and mental aptitude/suitability to join the army, and cos of a couple of issues, mostly my fault but one not-my-fault, I'm off to do it for a third time. Knowing what I'm in for doesn't make me feel any better. Surprisingly, neither does knowing that I've already passed twice. I don't know, the eternal pessimist, is me.
So wish me luck for that. With some luck, I won't need it.
In other news, I decided not to put computer neons on my christmas list, for the simple reason that I shelled out (£8, big deal) and bought some myself. Despite being attached to my computer with horrible crappy sticky pads that won't stick when you want to stick them on, and won't unstick when you want to take them off, I've managed to get three neon (cold cathode flourescent lights actually) tubes installed in my case, and it now looks really sparkly.
Look See?
One other important thing I've done (with some help) is finally get my wireless mouse working. It wouldn't hold a charge which really annoyed me cos I paid £70 for it, and like an idiot, instead of returning it, I shoved it in a cupboard expecting the problem to go away/expecting the cupboard to somehow fix it for me.Not sure what we (me and my dad) did, but it's now charging properly and is now finally doing the job that I bought it to do.
Oh well, I hope everything goes well tomorrow, I really hope so.
If it does then I'm set for a great weekend. I'm off to gainsborough on sunday (read last christmas's blog if you're curious, I'll stick a hotlink [hyperlink? What the hell is a hotlink?] in when I have the time tomorrow) with my mum to do some christmas shopping, and that evening I'm off to a christmas concert. If I pass tomorrow's course, I'm going to buy lots of beer and celebrate in a very drunken fashion on monday evening. You may or may not get a blog entry of total crap out of me. Depends how drunkenly generous I'm feeling.
Eek. I don't want to go bed! The sooner I go bed, the sooner I go sleep and the sooner I go sleep, the sooner I wake up to have lots of sergeants and PTIs telling me to run faster and whatnot.
Oh well.
I'll be fine - I hope.
ciao!
Update: 06:53 the following day:
Well, that was probably the most unpleasant, most broken night's sleep I've ever had. I must have spent about 4 hours trying to fall asleep, and when I finally got close, something would wake me up again.
To top it off, I've woken up to a freezing cold room on a godforsaken dump of a cold and drizzly saturday morning, out of what was a relatively warm bed (cold and bloody uncomfortable, tonight of all nights, it seems actually), so I could be slightly more cheerful, but I don't think I can stretch to that at the moment.
Meh. Let's hope there's better news to come.
Have fun, I sure as hell won't! :P
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
